In the Experience Economy, understanding the flow is critical in the success of any staged experience. A good example of how this works is through the story of Alice in Wonderland.
In order to develop a complete experience for your customer you must address every phase of the experience from the enticement to enter through the extending of the memory.
A visual recap of thinkAbout 2015 in Atlanta on the idea of “Ing the Thing” Adding action to a thing to begin thinking about the experience.
The “Regiception” – Reception and Registration Experience. (note this year’s joke is in the upper left. In addition of the morning tour to Chick-fil-A’s headquarters and the recipient of this year’s EXPY award.
Day 1 – Touring
Day 2 – Thinking about Ing the Thing
A special thanks to our after event excursion to The Prime Family of Business Office and congratulations to Jolene for receiving the EMA award.
When I hear how some people talk about customer experience (CustExp) or user experience (UX) I get a bit frustrated. Why, because most are speaking about good customer service or a good interface design and not really about an experience that provides an economic value worth paying more for the experience. No what they are really saying is we offer an expected customer service like everyone else. A service that is not measured how well a customer is involved with your offering, rather how efficient you provided it on a consistent basis.
Customer experience has become a replacement buzzword for good customer service without too much sacrifice for the customer or the provider while still keep within budgeted limits. Even some of the books written by so-called customer experience experts are usually no more than satisfaction program authors or worse yet, neglect the point-of-view from the eyes of the customer, rather what they believe to be good for the customer.
Okay, so I am a bit touchy on the subject, so much so that I put the whole book thing to the test by asking myself, of all these authors which ones have had the longest run in print and in person about their unique perspective on experiences. And when I mean unique, I mean that they were the originators and not the adaptors of a given concept. After a few dozen book purchases from the half-price and used book stores I found many were alterations of each other and finding which author came first is like answering the age-old question; chicken or the egg. Only genetics can tell.
There were a few books out there that I didn’t find on the used book shelves, mostly because of limited run or out of print. One however stood out, a book written by two gentlemen with various backgrounds ranging from Logic, Physics and Economics. Both having a strong background in multiple fields of science. Science! not marketing or sales, but science. What’s most impressive is the reason its hard to find their book on the used bookshelves is because it’s still in print and has recently been updated after 10 years. No other author or authors I could find have done this. Maybe you can find a few.
B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore wrote their original book, not white-paper publication, on the subject of the Experience Economy (note: not just the customer experience) in 1999 and then translated in 18 languages that I can find. Then in 2010, it was updated to show changes and the widening growth of the Experience Economy. Through their research and writing identify the economic impact and value and not merely state customer interfaces or service programs.
I was so impressed by their books I began attending their special conferences around their books. Not your typical conferences I grant you, these were “Experiences” all to themselves. the best way to prove your findings and ideas. Good customer experience is expected by customers, staging a true experience delivers on the unexpected and creates memories. Many reports have proven that customers value memories more than goods and those companies boasting good or great customer experiences are all goods or service providers and not truly experience stagers. That is the difference.
To put an exclamation mark on my post, I attended the “Experience Economy Certification” course. A five-day deep dive into the Experience Economy as an economic era and to learn and understand the techniques that companies can use to create experiences worth paying for and not just selling goods or services.
As of this post, I am proud to be of a part of a selected few now honored to be an Experience Economy Experts and not a Customer Experience Specialist.
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Are you one that believes that by creating an experience you provide greater value to customers, members or any type of visitor? You’re not alone. Each year somewhere across America a band of like-minded experiential thinkers gather with Joseph Pine and James Gilmore to put into practice the ideas and techniques shared in their book “The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage.”
Here are some of my Graphicnotes from the event held in Cincinnati in 2014. The group explored Persona development. I’m not speaking about Stereotyping, but raw persona development.
Wow! What an incredible time with some of the best experiential thinkers you’ll ever meet. In 2015, the group heads to Atlanta to take on new experiences and apply more of the principles to enrich their thinking and their offerings.
If you’re interested about attending a thinkAbout, click on over to the official site: Strategic Horizons and read more about the events. The event is not open to the public, but I have a few alumni contacts that would be willing to share their membership with you.
See more Graphicnotes from thinkAbout 2013
Have you ever wanted to attend a conference where everyone is totally engaged in the content, speakers and activities, well if so, than you just missed the greatest conference of experiential development. A large group converged on to Washington D.C. for the annual event called thinkAbout. A conference unlike anything you have ever attended or experienced before. Two days of mind-filling information, exercises and adventures focused on helping business owners transform their businesses from service providers to experiences.
Created by the authors of “The Experience Economy; Work is Theater & Every Business a Stage”, B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore, thinkAbout is that and much more. Below are a few visual translations that are samples from the event. Too much to record in, so little time.
Definitely a conference that follows what it preaches. You may have missed this year’s, but I recommend you definitely begin planning for next year’s thinkAbout and experience what a conference could be and should be, an EXPERIENCE!
If you’re interested in attending and have not attended an event before, alumni’s offer to share their chits to attend, because thinkAbout is a closed event and only available to those have the desire to transform their business.
Contact Joe Pine or Jim Gilmore at StrategicHorizons for information on next year’s gathering. Do it today, don’t wait, then read the book so you can jump right in on the activities, conversations and exercises around the concepts shared inside.
When you do call, tell them Kevin Dulle sent you.
P.S. For all attendees of thinkAbout, I have printed copies of high-resolution version available by request. You have my email and phone number so reach out if you like copies.
Okay, I need to warn you, there may be a heavy pun activity around this post. And that ain’t no chit, that’s a fact.
Instead of me trying to find a worthy person to share my good chit with, I decided to follow tradition of ancient nobles and lords and allow all to challenge in the social arena called Twitter where all can see your Chitty attempt. Only the determined may try, and only the worthy may win any chit. I will not randomly pick the user of my extra chit, rather it will be determined by that person who is deemed first to correctly tweet the solution of my secret chit stash.
Here’s how the chit plays out. Below is a graphic that has various types of clues and possibly some misleading information. (you know it will) Decipher the clues and find the correct sequence of the thinkAbout Chit Code.
Rules: Yes, there has to be rules…
1. Send your solution via Twitter in this way @IdeaFreak & @JoePine (Solution sequence) followed by “I want to #SendTheFreak”.
2. You must be the first correct tweet with all the information as described above, with the correct sequence and you are serious about using the Chit Code to attend thinkAbout 2012 in San Francisco. If correct, I will ReTweet a reply with congratulations so that all can see your effort.
3. The prize is only my Chit and NOT the attendance fee to thinkAbout, travel or hotel stay. The prize is only the Chit which gains you access to this special closed function hosted by B. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore. See the webpage for details: thinkAbout.
4. The contest ends at 11:59PM CST on September 12th, 2012. If no one has solved the code and used it by that time, the contest ends and you will just have to wait until next year’s event to try again.
5. Once you have been confirmed that the solution is correct, call the number provided on the thinkAbout information page and make your reservation with the secret Chit Code and we will see you at thinkAbout in San Francisco, California on September 19th – 20th, 2012.
Here’s the puzzle: Bit there were no winners this year.
